ittle indeed does he express, of what
they suffer.
17. When the Spaniards make them labour, carrying loads over the
mountains, they kick and beat them, and knock out their teeth with
the handles of their swords, to force them to get up when they fall,
fainting from weakness, and to go on without taking breath; and the
Indians commonly exclaim; "go to, how wicked you are: I am worn out
so kill me here, for I would rather die now and here." And they say
this with many sighs and gasps, showing great anguish and grief.
18. Oh! who could express the hundredth part of the affliction and
calamity that these innocent people suffer from the unhappy
Spaniards! May God make it known to those who can, and ought to
remedy it.

The Province of Cartagena

This province of Cartagena lies westward and fifty leagues below
that of Santa Marta, and bordering on that of Cenu as far as the
Gulf of Uraba: it comprises about a hundred leagues of seacoast and
a large territory inland towards the south.
2. These provinces have been as badly treated as those of Santa Marta,
distressed, killed, depopulated and devastated, from the year 1498
or 99 until to-day, and in them many notorious cruelties, murders,
and robberies have been committed by the Spaniards; but in order to
finish this brief compendium quickly and to recount the wickedness
done by them elsewhere, I will not describe the details.

The Pearl Coast

Paria, and the Island of Trinidad

Great and notorious have been the destruction that the Spaniards
have worked along the Coast of Paria, (97) extending for two hundred
leagues as far as the Gulf of Venezuela, assassinating the
inhabitants and capturing as many as they could alive, to sell them
as slaves.
2. They frequently took them by violating their pledged word and
friendship, the Spaniards failing to keep faith, while the Indians
received them in their houses, like fathers receive their children,
giving them all they possessed and serving them to the best of their
ability.
3. Certainly it would not be easy to relate, or describe minutely the
variety and number of the injustices, wrongs, oppressions, and
injury practised upon the people of this coas